Rotary engine and pump



Oct 1933- H. s. HELE-SHAW El AL 1,932,892

ROTARY ENGINE AND PUMP 1 Filed Dec. 11, 1928 5 Sheets-Sheet l Oct. 31,1933. H. s. HELE-SHAW Er AL 1,932,892

ROTARY ENGINE AND PUMP Filed Dec. 11, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 1933- H. s.HELE-SHAW ET AL 1,932,892

ROTARY ENGINE AND PUMP Filed Dec. 11, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 PatentedOct. 31, 1933 PATENT OFFICE 1,932,892 ROTARY ENGINE AND PUMP Henry SelbyHele-Shaw and Thomas Edward Beacham, London, and Edward Cecil Mills,

C'amborne, England,

Application December 11, 1928, Serial No. 325,256, and in Great BritainJune 15, 1928 4 Claims.

This invention relates to rotary engines and pumps and has for itsobject to provide improvements in such machines whereby their efliciencyand durability are enhanced.

The mechanism is of the type in which a rotary cylinder carrier operateson a fixed central valve, and the pistons of the cylinders arereciprocated by a fixed eccentric or its equivalent and in which suchpistons are of the single acting single stage type and communicatealternate- 1y through passages in the cylinder carrier with two passagesor sets of passages in the valve which are for the flow and return ofthe working fluid respectively. I

Such machines have been made with the thrust of the pistons bearing on aring carried on the eccentric members and allowed to float freely on itsown centre by being mounted in ball or roller bearings.

The present invention comprises a rotary engine or pump of the type setforth in which the pistons are provided with pins or projectionscarrying rollers or slippers on each side of the piston respectively,the rollers or slippers on each side working in an annular groovedmember mounted in a ball or roller bearing on a fixed eccentric, the twogrooved members being independent of each other.

In compressors or like machines having floating eccentric rings made inone piece, there is normally suflicient friction between the rollers andrings to carry the piston over each dead centre without any oscillatingmovement, which is possible when using rings made in two pieces.

With the two rings movable independently of one another there is atendency for the pistons to turn, and special means are provided forpre-- venting such turning.

The walls of the cylinders are provided on opposite sides withlongitudinal slots provided with accurately fitting sliders reciprocatedwith the gudgeon pins of the pistons.

Each slider may have a hole in it which fits accurately on the adjacentend of the gudgeon pin, or the sliders may be formed by making flats onopposite sides of a gudgeon pin of larger diameter than the width of theslots.

In the preferred construction of the machine the cylinder carrier issupported in the casing of the machine by extending a boss portion ofthe carrier through one of the eccentrics and mounting it in the casingon roller bearings and the valve is provided at the opposite end with aball or roller bearing secured in the bore of the cylinder carrier andat the other end the-valve is secured to the casing or where adjustmentis required a cylindrical extension to the valve may be rotatablymounted in the casing.

In order to provide improved means for reversing the machine whendesigned for use as a motor the valve is provided with two portsarranged to cooperate with three in the valve face of the casing, theports being so disposed that the supply of motive fluid under pressurewill be shut off from the cylinder during the neutral position of theports, and the valve provided with means for rotating it through anangle whereby the first and second or the second and third can be placedin communication with the supply of fluid under pressure.

In order that the valve can be made to efiect the reversing by moving itthrough an angle of 120 it is given 30 lap at the pressure and exhaustcut-ofi positions.

A manner of carrying out the invention as applied to compressed airdriven winding drum mechanism is illustrated by the accompanyingdrawings wherein:-

Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the machine,

Figure 2 a transverse section through the cylinders also showing amodification in which the cylinders are arranged tangentially, and

Figure 3 a transverse section through the valve chest of the machine.

In these drawings a shaft 2 provided with a pinion 3 is secured in aboss or hollow shaft extension 50 of a rotary cylinder-carrier 5provided with cylinders 5a and this pinion 3 operates a spur wheel 6 ona lay-shaft '7 having a spur wheel or pinion 8 which engages a toothedwheel 9 provided on a second lay-shaft 10 having a pinion 11 gearingwith an internally toothed wheel 12 provided on an end of a drum 13arranged to rotate on an external boss 14a provided on the end of acasing 14 on the other side of which one of the eccentrics 14b isformed. The other end of the drum 13 is also arranged to rotate on anextension 14c of the casing 14.

The cylinders 5a may be arranged radially as in Figure 1 or tangentiallyas in Figure 2, and the piston 15 of each cylinder 5a is provided with agudgeon pin 16 which extends through the piston 15 and longitudinalslots 5b provided in the walls of the cylinder 5a. The slots 5b in thecylinder walls are on the left hand side of the cylinder in Figure 1narrower than the diameter of the gudgeon pins 16 and are engaged byflats 16a formed on the extending portions of the pins, thus preventingany tendency of the pins 16 to rotate, or both ends of the gudgeon pin16 may be as shown on the right of the cylinder where the slider is inthe form of a block 16s having a hole fitting on a reduced end of thegudgeon pin 16 and having parallel sides bearing against the parallelsides of the slots 5b. These constructions together with the fixedeccentrics 14b and 140 ensure parallelism of the gudgeon pins with theaxis of the cylinder carrier 5.

On each end of the gudgeon pin 16 a roller 17 is fitted preferably on aroller bearing 16c and so arranged that the roller proper 16c isprevented from moving endways on the gudgeon pin 16. This may beeffected by making grooves 16b in both the inner and outer races 16c and16d of the roller bearing so that the rollers 166 will fit into bothgrooves and so prevent end motion. The inner race 160 may be split inorder to facilitate assembly of the roller bearings. The roller races16d form gudgeon pin rollers working in annular recesses 18a formedlaterally in the two opposite disposed rings 18, and these rings 18 aremounted by means ofball bearingslBb on eccentrics 14b and 140 formed onthe two inner sides of the casing 14. Each ring 18 is provided with alip or flange 18c which bears on one side against the cylinder carrier 5and on the other side against the races of the ball bearings 1812 sothat end movement of the .rings 18 is prevented.

The. cylinder carrier 5 rotates on a central fixed valve 20 which isheld in position concentrically with the axial bore 5d in the cylindercarrier 5 at one end by a ball bearing 5e and at :the other end of thecylinder carrier 5 has a boss 5f extending through the eccentric 14c and.mounted in the side of the casing 14 in a roller bearing 59. By meansof these ball and roller bearings the load is taken off the valve facesand carried on the ball and roller bearings. As the valve 20 is fixed inthe casing 14 at a position adjacent to this eccentric 140 thisarrangement secures that the valve 20 is carried on the ball and rollerbearings 5e,and 21d truly concentric with the bore 511 in the cylindercarrier 5, a small working clearance being provided so that no metalliccontact takes place and all wear is .obviated. The valve 20- may besecured firmly to the casing 14 when it is not desired to reverse thedirection of rotation of the winch drum 13, in the present examplereversing is provided for by making the end of the valve 20 trulycylindrical and so as to fit accurately in the bore of a valve chest 14hsecured to the casing 14. The valve 2 0 has two longitudinal passages20a and 20b of which 20b is the exhaust passage and communicates directwith the atmosphere. The other passage 20a is provided with twooppositely disposed radial ports 20c and 20d which during the rotationof the cylinder carrier 5 registers with three radial ports 14m, 1411,14p provided in the valve chest 14h and arranged to communicate with anannular passage 14r connected to an inlet pipe 14s for fiuid underpressure.

Means are provided whereby the valve 20 can be moved between either oftwo positions, in one of these the source of pressure is connected tothe passage 20a of the valve by means of the ports 20c and 20d when inregister with two pressure ports 14m and 1411. of the valve 20 and themotor will revolve in the forward direction. If the valve be turnedapproximately 60 towards the third pressure port in the casing the airpressure will be cut oil, and if the valve be turned a further 60,making 120 in all, the two air pressure ports 20c and 20d of the valve20 will be in register with the second and third ports 1472 and 14p ofthe valve chest 14h and pressure will again be supplied through thevalve to the cylinders 5a. However the ports co-operating with thecylinders 5a will now be at an angle of 120 to their previous positionand thereby cause the motor to revolve in the reverse direction.

At the inner end portion of the valve 20 the longitudinal passages 20aand 20b therein communicate in the usual manner with radially arrangedports 20a: and 20g adapted to register with radial ports 5pcommunicating with the closed ends of the cylinders 5.

During the operating 01' the machine the valve 20 closes before the endof the stroke of piston receiving pressure is reached and the airremaining in the cylinder expands. During the exhaust stroke the valve20 is arranged to open at dead centre and shut before the end of thestroke. Air

in the clearance space which is made especially large for the purpose isthen compressed until the end of the stroke is reached and the cylinderopens to pressure air again. Thus the valve 20 is arranged to open atdead centre but close with about 30 lap. By virtue of this constructioninstead of 180 movement of the valve being necessary only 120 isrequired in reversing.

In order to facilitate the operation of the valve 20 by a hand lever 21,a toothed pinion 2022 provided on the valve 20 is arranged to gear witha quadrant 21a pivoted on a pin 21b mounted in a bearing 21c fixed onthe valve chest 14h so as to beoperated by the lever 21. Thisarrangement enables the 120 reversing movement of the valve to beobtained by a much smaller angular movement of the lever. In order thatthe lever 21 may be operated without friction a ball hearing 21d isprovided to take the thrust from the topthed pinion 201:.

"What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A rotary compressor or motor comprising a rotating carrier, amultiplicity of single acting expansive working cylinders formed on thecarrier and having in their bases fiuid passages, reciprocating pistonsoperating in the cylinders, fixed eccentrics operating the pistons, anormally fixed cylindrical valve on which the carrier rotates and whichhas flow and return passages which communicate alternately with thefluid passages in the cylinders during the rotation of the carrier, acasing having a valve chest extension, means for rotating the normallyfixed valve through a given angle, and means for maintaining equalangles of cut-01f in both forward and reverse running, the normallyfixed valve being r0- tatably mounted in the casing and provided withtwo ports arranged to cooperate with three in the valve face of thecasing, the ports being so disposed that the supply of motive fluidunder pressure will be shut off from the cylinder during the neutralposition of the ports, the angular movement of the valve placing eitherthe first and second port or the second and third ports in communicationwith the supply of fluid under pressure for reversing purposes.

2. A rotary compressor or motor comprising'a rotating carrier, amultiplicity of single acting expansive working cylinders formed on thecartates and which has fiow and return passages which communicatealternately with the fiuid passages in the cylinders during the rotationof the carrier, three pressure ports in the valve face cooperating withtwo in the normally fixed valve, and means for varying the angularposition of the normally fixed valve, the ports being so arranged thatpressure will be shut off from the cylinder during the neutral positionof the valve, and when the valve is moved to one angular position thefirst and second of the pressure ports of the casing will register withits pressure ports of the valve and when moved to another angularposition the second and third pressure ports of the casing will registerwith the said pressure ports of the valve to effect reversing, theangular movement of the cylinder carrier being substantially the samebetween opening and closing to pressure and to exhaust and the valvemoved through such angle to effect reversing.

3. A rotary compressor or motor comprising a rotating carrier, amultiplicity of single acting expansive working cylinders formed on thecarrier and having in their bases fluid passages, reciprocating pistonsoperating in the cylinders, fixed eccentrics operating the pistons, afixed cylindrical valve on which the carrier rotates and which has flowand return passages which communicate alternately with the fluidpassages in the cylinders during the rotation of the carrier, threepressure ports in the valve face cooperating with two in the normallyfixed valve and geared lever mechanism for varying the angular positionof the normally fixed valve, the ports being so arranged that pressurewill be shut ofi from the cylinder during the neutral position of thevalve, and when the valve is moved by the geared lever mechanism to oneangular position the first and second of the pressure ports of thecasing will register with its pressure ports of the valve and when movedto another angular position the second and third pressure ports of thecasing will register with the said pressure ports of the valve to efiectreversing, the angular movement of the cylinder carrier beingsubstantially the same between the opening and closing to pressure andexhaust so that the angular movement of the reversing lever will be thesamefor forward as for reverse running.

4. A rotary compressor or motor comprising a rotating carrier, amultiplicity of single acting expansive working cylinders formed on thecarrier and having in their bases fluid passages, re-

ciprocating pistons operating in the cylinders,

fixed eccentrics operating the pistons, a normally fixed cylindricalvalve on which the carrier rotates and which has fiow and returnpassages which communicate alternately with the fluid passages in thecylinders during the rotation of the carrier, three pressure ports inthe valve face cooperating with two in the normally fixed valve andmeans for varying the angular position of the normally fixed valve, theports being so arranged that pressure will be shut off from the cylinderduring the neutral position of the valve, and when the valve is moved toone angular position the first and second of the pressure ports of thecasing will register with its pressure ports of the valve and when movedto another angular position the second and third pressure ports of thecasing will register with the said pressure ports of the valve to eifectreversing, the valve being given 30 lap at the pressure and exhaustcut-oil position so that the reversal can be ,eflected by rotating thefixed valve through 120

